News

UWATC Update - April 2021

Published Thu 01 Apr 2021

IMPORTANT NOTES

We are back at McGillivray!
Well done Jonney, Nick and Flick - Conquering podiums in the last month.
Last stretch before Busselton!

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Triathlon Western Australia

The Presidential Committee Platform

Gday Team!

We have had an amazing month at the club!

Here are the latest updates:

Race Results - The club was well represented on the podium. Congratulations to Nick Thompson and Felicity Sheedy Ryan for finishing First at the Karri Valley Triathlon on 13th March and Flick and Jonney Sammut becoming respective State Sprint Champions at the City of Joondalup Coastal Quest Triathlon. Congratulations also to Oggi Zurzulo, Alex Meek and Hamish Delorenzo for their respective podium finishes. What an awesome result for the club!
Well done to the TriActive participants. The TriActive participants coached by Alison concluded their program by crossing the finish line of the Coastal Quest Triathlon. Well done to everyone involved - We genuinely hope to see you join our other club sessions in the future!
We are back at McGillivray. We have secured the track at McGillivray oval between now and October so our Tuesday running sessions will go back there under lights from Tuesday 6th April (next week). Coach Steve will make sure to communicate this at our sessions but please help us by sharing the message too.
New T-shirts! Thank you to Rebecca Puccini for submitting a wonderful design for our t-shirts. We are in the process of ordering so please keep an eye out for further updates on price and orders. The design looks fabulous. Order some for yourself and your favourite supporters when they are released soon.
Partnership with IntensEATfit. The Club committee has approved its first partnership deal in a long time with IntensEATfit - run by no one other than our Club President Gaby Villa!

This is a very exciting opportunity for our members to work with an expert in the field of Sports Nutrition and really learn how to use their nutrition and hydration to their advantage.

The committee is proud to announce that through this partnership, club members will be able to access 2x sweat rate tests per year, which is really useful to learn about individual sweat rates and things to consider when hydrating for training and racing. Keep an eye out as there will also be a Nutrition talk specific to Triathlon later in the season.

If you are interested in taking your performance to the next level, or if you haven't considered your Sports Nutrition strategy - definitely check out https://en.intenseatfit.com/ , follow any of the intensEATfit socials @Intenseatfit or contact Gaby directly.
Enjoy your Easter! The pool and gym will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday, with normal operating hours on Saturday 3rd April. If you are heading out of town remember to be safe.

Train safe, have fun!

Brenden Koh
UWA Triathlon Club Committee

Sports nutrition tip - Brought to you by

Race-day nutrition... what, when, how much?

Busselton Half is exactly one month away and right now it is the best time to fine tune your nutrition strategy.

What to eat. Energy gels and bars are often the most popular foods recommended as race fuel. They are high in energy, rapidly absorbed and very convenient. However, they are not the only options. Other good sources of energy include gummies such as energy blocks or snakes, sports drinks (e.g. Gatorade, Powerade, Bindi, Maurten) and dried fruit (e.g. cranberries). I often recommend choosing 2-3 options to rotate through during the race.
When. Guidelines are often set per hour. However, I would recommend you try and have a small bite or sip every 15-20 minutes to avoid eating large amounts of food in a short period of time.
How much. Guidelines recommend 30-90g of carbohydrate consumed per hour. You can start with something in between (~45g) and from there decide if you think you need a bit more or less depending on how you feel.

Practical example: Someone aiming to achieve ~50g in one hour can have 1/2 clif bar (20g) + 3 energy blocks (20g) + 200 ml sports drink (12g)

Important! One of the most important things for your nutrition to be successful is to ensure your body is familiar with your planned foods. Make sure you have tried the above options during training before implementing it on your race day.

Do you have any nutrition questions... Send them through! gaby@intenseatfit.com

Follow @Intenseatfit for more triathlon nutrition advice

Participants required for wave study

Next Wednesday and Thursday (7th and 8th of April) two engineering students will be undertaking some experiments to observe how surface waves influence front crawl swimming. This is part of a wider ongoing study across engineering and sports science at UWA.

As part of the study the students are looking for swimmers who may be interested in participating in the experiments. A participation information form and consent form will be sent to you if this is something you may have availability and are interested to do. In short, the testing is likely to take 1 hour and will involve swimming in a flume with waves.

If you are interested could you please email Chelsea at 21968496@student.uwa.edu.au and let her know your availability on Wednesday and Thursday. She will provide you with the forms and further details.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact Chelsea.

Many thanks,

Scott Draper

Community Cycling Program 2021

The Office of the Auditor General for Western Australia (OAG) is conducting this survey to help inform our current audit on cycling in the Perth area. Our audit focuses on 2 key areas: the bicycle network and State and local government actions to promote cycling as a safe and viable mode of transport.

We selected the 4 following local government entities to include in our audit, however we welcome your comments on any local government areas:

City of Perth
City of Cockburn
City of Bayswater
City of Kalamunda.

Your input via this survey helps provide us with views from a range of stakeholders. The survey includes up to 23 questions and should take less than 15 minutes to complete. All responses will remain confidential.

General information from this survey may be used to inform our audit and may appear as de-identified information in the final audit report to Parliament.

The survey will close at 4 pm on 19 April 2021.

Complete survey here

All about... Felicity Sheedy-Ryan!

1. Tell us about yourself?

Well I have been a member of UWA Triathlon Club now for probably about 18 or 19 years! For those that have been around the club that long you will probably know me pretty well. For those that are newer to the club, not so much, as my triathlon journey has taken me a long way from when it began with the club all those years ago….

So for those that don’t know me, I’m the really short one whose legs go like the road runner cartoon! 😉 I have raced as a professional Triathlete for almost as many years as I have been with the club. I started as a scrawny last year junior with no idea, then jumped straight into the elite ranks directly after. All the way back then all I wanted to do was race the very best and push myself as hard as I could. Fast forward 15 years and not much has changed! And yes I still hate early morning training, I still love thumping myself around a track, and winning Beerman will always be the pinnacle of club racing haha 😊

Along the way I have been lucky enough to race for Australia as an elite, represented the country in World Championship teams, in both long course 70.3, short course ITU racing, and Duathlon. And without question my proudest moments have been winning 2 World Titles in Duathlon. Something I will cherish forever!

I have also won a World cup, podiumed in multiple European and continental and world cup races, medalled in every elite 70.3/Half ironman race I have done with the exception or World champs (dam it!) Finished runner up twice at Noosa triathlon, Australia’s largest triathlon, raced for a team in France, and experienced the pain and fun of lactate blowing out your eyeballs of what is the new style of super short and fast racing by qualifying for Super League Triathlon.
In the ‘’before times’’ (pre covid) I would spend about half my year here in Perth or Australia at least, and then migrate north to follow the sunshine to race in the Europe and the US. Grant Landers was my longest standing coach from UWA, and I owe so much to his expertise, patience and friendship. So as triathlon has steered me all over the globe my face may not be as regular in the club these days as it was when I started out. But you never forget the who’s and where’s that you came from and the UWA club always has a special place to me.

2. How did you start in triathlon and when did you join the club?

Well I first started when my Dad (which most of you will probably know too from him jumping up and down on the sidelines) needed a swimmer for a team. Naturally, with me being a non-swimmer, of course I said I will do it haha. I was terrible! But I got through it and though geez that was fun. I want to do the whole thing. Cliché as it is, the rest is history. I loved it then and there, knew I found what I wanted to do and haven’t looked back.

3. What do you enjoy most about the sport?

So much! Firstly I loved the challenge. It is one of the hardest sports out there and I thrive on that challenge. I love pushing myself to the limits and testing the barriers of your personal mind and body. How far can you push if you are taken to the brink? How deep and smart can you go in a race to take a win when you are on the limit?

I love the diversity. Training 3 different disciplines and having to different tactics strengths and weaknesses has always been appealing. You could improve and evolve without endlessly.
I love the places and travel it has enabled me to do, and I love the people and friendly, warm and supportive culture of the people in the sport. I love seeing others succeed at their personal goals as well.

4. Favourite leg and why?

No surprises it’s the Run! I just love running. Its ease and simplicity, I love heading out into the trails, and when it comes to pushing hard, I enjoy hurting myself running more than any other disciplines. Nothing invigorates me as much as running. I also love racing the run. I feel I have more ability to race and apply different tactics in running than I do in the other legs. For me personally its more crafty and diverse.

5. Best triathlon tip

Consistency. Consistency. Consistency.
Miss a rep here or there, a slow session, a missed session. Nothing matters as much as trying to keep some level of consistency. That’s where you reap the most rewards. No point burying yourself in one session to miss the next 3. Keep sessions steady and the gains will come
2 – Have FUN! A happy athlete is always a good athlete 😊

6. What’s your next goal?

Well right now that is a secret ! while I plan the next phase of racing. But I do plan on racing World Champs at the end of the year.

2020/21 Club Races

Calendar for the 20/21 triathlon racing season has been released and we couldn't be more excited. These are the races we have chosen for this season:

EXSS Duathlon State Champs	4 October 2020
City of Joondalup Coastal Quest	28 March 2021
Mandurah State Interclub Championship	10 January 2021
Bunbury City Classic	17 October 2021
EXSS Super Sprint Final	7 March 2021
Karri Valley Triathlon	13 March 2021
70.3 Busselton	1 May 2021

Triathlon Western Australia Annual Awards

Triathlon WA Annual Awards are back for 2021. The event will be held on Sunday 30th May from 2- 4pm at Public House in Perth.

Nominations are now open for the following awards

Service to Sport
Coach of the Year
Community Coach of the Year
Life Membership

More information

Latest race reports

State Triathlon Championships - Combined report by Jonney Sammut and Nick Thompson

The morning began like any other race morning. Frantic. An early arrival with the intention of being organised, only to be followed by lost race packs, snapped goggles and an abnormally long time setting up in transition. This is exactly how Nick’s morning started. Jonney on the other hand; registered, racked in poll position and ready to go all within the space of 20 minutes. Needless to say, he was ready to rumble.

The race started with an ocean swim in the picturesque Mullaloo beach which was interestingly deemed cold enough for a wetsuit. Their 2 litres of sweat lost in the 5 minutes prior to race start indicated otherwise. Undeterred, with warm ups done, courses were memorised, we were ready to go.

With the stage set, our race plans dictated how we would approach the course. Given Jonney’s strengths in swimming, it was in his best interest to attack from the gun. Nick on the other hand, was looking to minimise his losses. Knowing he would have to make up the ground on the bike. Jonney’s plan came to fruition as he exited the swim with 40 seconds to Nick, which was a decent lead but was it enough? Upon exiting transition, Jonney had extended his lead with a swift wetsuit removal. With this being said, Jonney would need to still have the bike of his life to hold off the chasing pack lead by none other than the Karri Valley Champion of 2021, Nick Thompson. The first lap proved imperative, where Jonney maxed his effort so as to demoralise the chasing pack. However knowingly, this could only be short sustained. By the second lap, the chase pack including State Ironman Record Holder Matt Burton had made up a mere 10 seconds. Nick understood that he would need to use his freshness and leg speed to chase down the fast moving Sammut on the run. As Jonney entered transition for a second time, he again showed his short course prowess and was already exiting to start the run as Burton, Thompson and fellow chase pack athletes Guy Crawford and Kurt Wesley were dismounting their bikes. It all came down to the run. Jonney had impressed everyone by maintaining a 45 second buffer but would still have to have a strong run to hold off a fast finishing Nick, who had a 30 second buffer over an even faster finishing Kurt. At the 2.5km turnaround point, Nick looked down at his watch and could see Jonney still had a 40 second lead. The two shared a high five as a sign of mutual respect. The winner had been decided, but before Nick could get too complacent, he knew he had to put together a quick last half to hold off Kurt. Nick was successful and as a result took out 2nd, still 40 seconds behind Jonney who had executed a perfect race. The result was sweet for both Jonney and Nick, taking out the top two steps for the club. The lads now turn their sights towards the Busselton Half Ironman in 4 weeks time where they will hope to take the top two steps of the podium again, but in what order….